hops - week 15

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood (left) - planted in ground May 2008 -> ~14'
Cascade (right) - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009 -> 15'+
notes: The Mt. Hood plant is dying off - no hops expected from the this one. The Cascade plant appears to have more or less stopped growing and is now just producing hops. Lots and lots of glorious hops. See pics below.

dying Mt. Hood plant

newer cascade hops

cascade hop closeup

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009 -> 30'+

notes: Growth is maybe starting to slow.
Tons of hop burrs have shown up on newest laterals.

nugget hop laterals and burrs

i have hops

the cascade hops are coming in strong.

backyard barley - starting to dry out

Thought i'd post some pictures from my little backyard barley experiment. This first two pics were taken July 1st. At that point lots of the seed heads had developed, and just as many were chopped off thanks to the local wildlife. While we were gone on vacation, a rabbit (i'm guessing) appeared to decide this was a good place to hide out. A big section right in the middle was matted down, so I put up the fence. Since then some more seed heads have shown up and have started to dry out (bottom picture).

Week 8

Week 8

Week 10

hops - week 14

the experiment continues:

Mt. Hood (left) - planted in ground May 2008 -> ~14'
Cascade (right) - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009 -> 15'+
notes: The Mt. Hood plant is still developing sideshoots, but overall growth is still very slow and no hop burrs have shown up yet.
The Cascade plant is still growing laterals.
Tons of hop burrs (spikey balls) have shown up all over the plant. About a dozen of these have started to turn into the hop cones. See pics below.

cascade - hop burrs

cascade - hop cones

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009 -> 25'+
notes: Still growing strong - focused on laterals.

Some hop burrs have shown up, but are not doing much yet.

beers of the east coast

On my recent vacation to the DC area I tried as many different east coast beers as I could find. I generally went for pale-ales -> some were hoppy (smuttynose), some weren't (fire rock), all were good. My favorite was probably the Starr Hill Amber Ale, which was quite refreshing on a hot day at Monticello.

Amber Ale - Starr Hill , Charlottesville VA

Rugged Trail Ale - Troegs, Harrisburg PA

Black&Tan - Yuengling, Pottsville PA

Shoals Pale Ale - Smuttynose, Portsmouth NH

Chesapeake Pale Ale - Alewerks, Williamsburg VA

Fire Rock Pale Ale - Kona, Hawaii by way of Portsmouth NH

Pale Ale - Chownings Tavern, Willamsburg VA

Pale Ale - O'Connells Pub, Alexandria VA

Other beer tried but not pictured

Dominion Pale Ale - Old Dominion, Ashburn VA

Raison D'Etre - Dogfish Head, Milton DE
Lucky Kat - Magic Hat, Burlington VT
Pale Ale - American Cafe, Alexandria VA

a test

I think my metal is being tested..... Biking week in review:

Monday - Broke a spoke on my commuter bike. I initially thought I had a flat, as I was just riding along down the trail, heard a pop and then my bike would go no further as the rim was against the break pad.

Tuesday - Flat tire on my cruiser bike. Rode to work - no problem. Mid-day looked at my bike and there was no air in the rear tire. Fortunatly we have a bike shop within 1 mile of my office so I fixed it and rode home. The punture was on the inside (rim side) of the tube - no idea how it happened.

Wednesday - Rain. Heard the rumbling, knew it was comming -> went anyways. A third into my trek is started sprinking, thought, I can handle this. Half way is started coming down. Final 1/4 was a downpour. Fortunatley I was prepared. Had my important stuff in the otter box and a towel / change of clothes at the office.

Thursday / Friday - Who knows...... Da Da Duhhhhhhhhhhh.

hops - week 11

after a 3 week hiatus caused by a busy work schedule, a vacation and a little bit of laziness - the experiment continues:


Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 main bines / 13' in length
notes: growth has started to pick up again
laterals have filled in areas where the virus thinned out leaves
no cones spotted as of yet

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009

3+ bines / 13'+ in length

notes: vigorous growth

numerous laterals in lower half 3'-5' in length

small spikey balls appearing on laterals -I assume these are the hop cones

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009

1 bine / 20'+ in length

notes: vigorous growth

numerous laterals on the first and third quarter of the bine

some spikey balls (hop cones?) are starting to appear on the upper laterals